A horror short for Halloween, enjoy!
The captain stood on the deck looking over the crowd of newly enlisted sailors. Sailors was the kind word for them, thieves or criminals suited them better. To most common folk they all fell under one flag, pirates. They decided to take a job on the seas and most didn’t know how to swim.
He looked out with one eye, his other covered by a thick eye patch.
He cleared his throat, “there’s one rule everyone needs to follow, it’s the pirate rule.” The sailors looked around nervously.
“If you fall from the ship don’t remove your eye patch!”
The sailors all laughed in unison. “Really that’s the rule of pirates!” One person shouted it was met with more laughter.
The captain just smiled, they would learn with due time.
The captain stepped down into the belly of the ship. He lifted his eye patch to see in the unlit room. His eye already well adjusted to the dark corners. The ship creaked and moaned as it swayed in the ocean. Then came the yell from the top deck. He could hear the men’s steps above his head running. “Warship in the waters.” The sound brought chills to his spine.
He stepped out into the light setting his eye patch back in place. His foot barely fell when the first Canon ball ripped through the ship. The jolt was menacing. Men screamed, fire was returned. He turned to face the galley. She was massive. Her guns outnumbered their small pirate vessel ten to one. Wood chips hit his face as fire and smoke covered the ship. The ocean got closer and closer to the top of the ship’s rails. Panicked men threw themselves overboard or tried yelling in surrender. The captain’s words rang in his head, don’t remove your eye patch. The water started to surround the bottoms of his boots. The icy sea sent chills along his feet and gave him goosebumps. As the ship finally disappeared beneath the water, so did its captain.
The world was dark. The captain sank his arms hanging above his head. He couldn’t see a thing. Don’t remove your eye patch. Don’t remove your eye patch. The thought kept echoing in his head. He felt something grab onto his ankle. Not a bite more like a hand gripped tightly. He felt a tug deeper into the depths. He felt his heart beat faster. Don’t remove your eye patch. Fear pulled at him as he swayed his arms in desperation to reach the quickly fading light of the surface. His breath couldn’t hold any longer. He had to breathe, he kicked and kicked but the hand never let go. In his struggle he hit his eye patch. It floated off into the abyss miles and miles of open blue ocean.
The captain looked down at his ankle. Blue fingers wrapped tightly around. On the other end, long dark hair. A face? Female and beautiful, she looked up at the captain. He’d been a pirate for most of his life. Lost a lot of men to the seas. Now here he was floating to Davy Jones. He lived by one rule his past ship mate said to him. Never remove your eye patch in the ocean, he’d say. As the captain now stared at the beautiful deep big blue eyes the saying didn’t make much sense. What is wrong with this? He had that thought until he saw the long dolphin-like body and the teeth.
Housed and Fed 